On October 30, 2026, Google updated its rules for personalized YouTube ads for gambling. Licensed advertisers in the US, the UK and Canada can build campaigns on Google's predefined audiences. Prediction markets fall under the same sensitive targeting category.
Google classifies online and offline gambling, including prediction markets, and gambling-related content as sensitive categories. In these categories, advertisers cannot upload their own audiences, but in-market and affinity segments, demographics, life events and geotargeting are available. Lookalike audiences and Customer Match remain banned. Targeting based on gambling-related medical information is still prohibited, and personalized ads are not shown to users under 18 at all.
Prediction markets have a separate rule. They can be advertised only in the US, excluding Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Ohio. Google removed Connecticut on October 7, 2026. Ohio was excluded in June, Michigan and New York in July. The advertiser must be a CFTC-designated exchange or an NFA-registered broker and hold all local financial and gaming licenses. The UK and Canada are not on the list of permitted territories.
For gambling operators in the UK and Canada, this expands personalization but does not by itself give access to YouTube: they need Google certification and a license in each targeted country. For prediction markets, the set of targeting rules has changed, while the list of territories has stayed the same.
The background is brief. On October 7, Google allowed certified online gambling advertisers to appear in Masthead, the top ad unit on the YouTube homepage, starting October 21, 2026. Gambling certification applications from November 19, 2026 are submitted only through a Google Ads account, and the help center for them is closed.
